2 dead after attack on police in China's far west

BEIJING (AP) — Police in China's restive western region of Xinjiang shot dead an armed assailant for attacking an officer, who later died, state media said Wednesday.

The suspect used unspecified weapons to injure a police officer in the city of Urumqi on Monday night, the official China News Service reported. Officers who arrived at the site shot the attacker dead.

The injured officer, who was 29, later died, the news agency reported.

The report did not identify the ethnicity of the assailant, but it was the latest in a series of attacks pointing to growing unrest in the sprawling region.

Xinjiang is home to a simmering rebellion against Chinese rule among parts of the native Turkic Uighur (pronounced WEE'-gur) population who chafe against Beijing's rule. Recent clashes, including an attack on police last month, have left dozens of people dead.

Officials have also said an attack March 1 at a train station in the southern city of Kunming, hundreds of miles outside Xinjiang, was carried out by Xinjiang separatists. That attack left 33 people dead, including four assailants who were killed by police.